Armageddon
by warmachinerox
Summary: A series of strange occurrences including a letter prophesying the return of Lord Voldemort send the Hogwarts alumni teaming up with supernatural hunters Sam and Dean Winchester in a race to stop the Dark Lord's previously concealed master plan that was orchestrated by a pact with Lucifer.
1. Author's Note

This is primarily a Harry Potter/Supernatural crossover story but there will be plenty of connections to other continuities such as Lord of the Rings and Marvel Comics

I have this same story on figment dot com. I brought it here because I figured it would get more view. First of all, a good understanding of the Harry Potter series and Supernatural (seasons 5-8) are necessary. I apologize if the story sounds a little cheesy in the beginning, I promise it will get better after the first couple of chapters (I really suck at intros). I am also writing this story off the top of my head as I think of plot elements to go with it. Having said that, while I have a general plotline in my mind, I am always open to suggestions from readers for what they would like to see happen in this story. If interested, leave a comment with your ideas. I will try to update the story as often as possible.


	2. Prologue

Late at night, in a shroud of darkness, broken only by a faint candle light, a man sat at his desk furiously striking away at his paper with a black, feathered quill. A caged raven perched beside him, staring eagerly upon the man. One could only think that the bird had dinner on its mind. The candle flame flickered and swayed with the warm, gentle breeze flowing through the window, occasionally overpowered by a flash of lightning from the approaching storm. Even with the rumbling thunder, the creaking door and the occasional rustling of his restless pet, the man's attention would not leave his writing; he was obsessed with every word he wrote.

When the distant storm finally arrived, the rain came down in sudden bursts, pouring through the window and dripping from a leak in the roof. The man took the now waterlogged paper he was writing on and quickly folded it to be put into an old and tattered envelop that was lying on the floor. After writing the recipient's name on the envelope, he stood up at his desk and poured over the top of his desk, the liquid from a bottle that was sitting next to him. He opened the padlock on the bird cage and let the raven out to stretch its wings. The bird looked at the envelope, addressed to Harry Potter, took it in its talons and flew out the open window, letting out a sinister caw as it flew into the storm.

The man turned his attention to the candle on the desk. He took it from its stand and set the flame against the liquid he had dumped over the desk earlier. The man watched and waited as the room was set ablaze around him; the storm could not put out the fire. It seemed the man wanted to die. The room filled with smoke and all there was to see was no more.


	3. Invisible Disease

"So, what did I miss?" Sam asked, waking up from his long period of slumber.

"Not much Sammy," Dean replied.

"Where are we anyway?"

"Sioux Falls Hospital,"

Sam looked around at the various pieces medical equipment he was now beginning to notice. "A hospital, Dean? Why?"

"Because you're not well Sam," Dean explained, "I don't know what those trials did to you, but there's no way to fix it."

"There's gotta be something out there on how to fix this, Dean," Sam said. He seemed to be feeling better, but even he knew something was wrong with him.

"There is nothing, Sam," Dean said, "We lost Cas, along with every other angel out there. Bobby's gone, Garth is a waste of time, and Kevin ran off to God knows where. For once in my life, I'm willing to call this defeat."

"Defeat, are you crazy?" Sam asked, slightly shaken by his brother's somber words.

"Excuse me, Dean Winchester?" a doctor interrupted.

"Yes sir," Dean replied

"Can I see you in the hall for a minute?"

Dean followed the doctor into the bright white hallway, "What's the word doc?" he asked.

"Mostly unusual," the doctor said, "Your brother seems to be ill with an invisible disease."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Dean inquired.

"Well, he has symptoms that indicate a severe problem within his vital organs; however, test results show that he is perfectly healthy. We don't know what to do. Sorry."

The doctor walked away and continued making his rounds. Dean looked toward the floor with despair. "Dammit," he said under his breath and walked back into the room by his brother.

"What did he say?"

"It's not good."

"What does that mean, Dean?"

"The doctors are calling it an invisible disease. He said that you're perfectly healthy and they can't find anything physically wrong with you."

"So now what? Just pass it off as fine and away we go?"

"Which is a fancy way of saying we need a miracle, yes."


	4. The Letter

By the time Harry had arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, the morning sunrise had lifted the clouds from the last night's storm. He was eager to meet his friends about the letter he had received in the middle of the night.

He opened the rusty, metal door to the saloon. As he stepped inside, he could hear the floor creak; it was too early in the morning for noise of the customers to overpower the sounds of the old structure. Each person he walked by on his way to the back of the building stared at him, some giving him a nod in solute; he was, after all, the wizard who killed Lord Voldemort just two years ago.

"Have a Butterbeer, Mr. Potter, on the house," the bartender said as he saw the wizard pass him.

"No thanks," Harry replied. The floor continued to croak under his feet on his way to the back table where his good friends, Ron and Hermione were sitting.

"Hey guys," he said to them.

"Hey Harry," Ron responded.

"We, came as soon as we got your letter. What's going on?" Hermione asked.

"This," Harry said. He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a tattered and wrinkled envelope with red writing on the front and gently tossed it down in front of her, "Read it."

Hermione took the letter out of the envelope and began reading aloud, "Harry Potter," she started, "You don't know me, and you never will. By the time you receive this letter, I will be dead, so listen now and listen well: you may think that you destroyed Lord Voldemort those few years ago. You are wrong; he has more magic working for him than you could ever understand. There is a force, more powerful than any witch or wizard, that intends to bring him back to finish what he began. You can't stop it on your own, but there is an ancient spell that can bring it to an end. I have not been able to locate the book that contains it, but word has it that it has been heard of in the United States. Find it and destroy it before it is too late. You are the only one that can destroy the Dark Lord once and for all."

"I don't want to say that was rather vague, but where do we even start?" Ron inquired, "We destroyed all the Horcruxes."

"Maybe someone found the Resurrection Stone," Hermione suggested.

"No, I buried it in the Dark Forest that night; no one would find it," Harry said, "Any other ideas?"

"We could go to America and start searching," Ron said.

"International travel laws still apply to us, Ron. It's not that easy to get there, even for a wizard." Hermione informed.

"Then what do we do?"

"How about this…" Harry began, "You dad still works for the Ministry right?" Ron nodded in reply. "Then you can talk to him about getting us a passport to the states. Hermione and I will take a ride on the Hogwarts Express."

"What are we going to do at Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.

"We're going to see Professor McGonagall. She's one of the last surviving members of the original Order of the Phoenix, and I'm guessing that she might know a thing or two about rare and ancient magic that might help us."

"When does the next train leave?"

"Tomorrow, eleven O'clock."


	5. Trip Down Memory Lane

Hogwarts Express—Car 4—5:00 pm

"What are you going to say to McGonagall when we get there?"

"I don't know, Hermione, maybe see if she has any Ideas of where to start. I'm more concerned about what happens when we get to America. None of us have ever been there."

"I have that covered,"

"How so?"

"I know someone over there."

"You do? I thought the only friends you knew were at Hogwarts."

"Harry, when I first got my Hogwarts letter nine years ago, it wasn't exactly an easy thing to stomach. I knew that I would have to hide the secret. I lied to my best friend's face, something I never do, and told her that my parents forced me to go to boarding school because they thought I could focus on academics more."

"Like you need focus."

"I hid my true persona my first few years at Hogwarts. I was not a good student while I was in muggle school. I had bad grades, no academic skill and was a target for bullies. Even among the students that were my friends, Kate was the only one that genuinely cared about me most of the time."

"Why didn't you ever tell us about this before?"

"I took my enrollment at Hogwarts as a second chance at school. Once I told Kate that I might never see her again, I knew there was no looking back. I wanted to start fresh and from scratch. I pretty sure that wasn't a good first impression when you first met me," Hermione let slip a smile that she didn't think would come from talking about her past.

"Didn't you ever talk to her again? Kate, I mean?"

"During the summer of our first year I did. It was really difficult not to tell her what really happened. I received the message early during second year that she and her family were moving to America; that's when I stopped keeping in touch."

"We're slowing down," Harry said, changing the subject. The train began to slow to a halt at the station platform in Hogsmeade Village. When the train finally came to a complete stop, the doors to the cars opened for the students to exit. Harry and Hermione were the last to exit but certainly not the last ones to be formally greeted.

"Harry! Hermione!" a deep voice yelled.

"Hagrid, it's good to see you!" Harry answered.

"What are ya doin' back here? I thought you'd get out and enjoy the world for a few years."

After a few good hugs and hand shakes, Harry continued, "We just thought we would see how Hogwarts is without us," he joked.

"Actually," Hermione said, finishing their conversation, "We're here to see Professor McGonagall. There's a big problem we need to deal with."

"Oh," Hagrid said softly, "Let me be the first to escort you passed the new headmistress's office."

The former students took a walk down memory lane as they passed familiar landmarks on their way to the castle. The Womping Willow still stood in the same spot it had for years, seemingly untouched, even after the war that overtook it several years ago. The long wooden bridge that once spanned the gap between the castle and the forest was rebuilt, looking a little sturdier than it had in the past. As they made their way into the castle, much of the interior was still battle scarred. Cracked walls, broken windows and broken statues lined the halls. They arrived at the great phoenix statue that guarded the entrance to the headmaster's chamber, and began walking up the stairs.

"Come in," McGonagall said when they knocked. "Potter, Granger, it's really good to see you," she said happily.

"Hello Professor," Hemione said

"What can I do for you tonight? Or are you just visiting the old castle?"

"Actually Professor," Harry said, "We need your help."

"Desperately," Hermione added.

"Oh my," the Headmistress replied, "What seems to be the problem?"

Harry sat down on the large cushioned chair to gather himself before speaking. After letting out a short sigh, he began to inform her of the problem. "We have reason to believe that someone is going to try to bring Voldemort back with some kind of really dark, ancient magic that no one has seen in centuries."

"You're sure about this?"

"Very."

"What kind of terrible magic could bring him back?" the professor said, slightly fearful.

"We don't know. The letter, however, mentioned some kind of ancient spell book that know one has seen in centuries. The letter said someone found it in the U.S. Since you were in the original Order of the Phoenix, we thought you might have some insight as to what they were talking about."

"I am sorry Potter, I don't know about that."

"You're sure there's nothing you know that could help us? Hermione checked the library in Diagon Alley and she didn't find anything."

"I'm sorry. If there is a book with that kind of magic in it, I have never seen it."

Harry stood up and turned away from McGonagall, "Thank you for your time, Professor," Hermione said. The pair began to exit the office.

"Potter," McGonagall said, Harry turned around to look at her, "Are you going to America to find this book?"

"Whatever it takes, Professor, Voldemort cannot come back."

"If you do go, the Men of Letters were a secret magical organization that worked closely with the Order. They have been around for several centuries. If they still exist, they might know about the book."

"Thanks," Harry said.

"I don't want to see another war break out, you two. Do whatever it takes, and be safe."

They walked out the door and stood in the hallway to reflect on what they found out.

"Do you think the Men of letters still exist?" Hermione asked.

"You know our luck, probably not."

Harry stood silent for a moment at the window in the corridor that looked out to the west. "Remember when we used to be able to see the most beautiful sunsets from here?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah," Hemione said in reply. Her attention was suddenly stolen by a shooting star in the sky, one that briefly outshined the rest. "Do you remember the meteor shower the other night?" she asked

"You mean the one that made you feel uneasy by watching it?"

"You had that feeling too huh? Do you wanna know why?"

"I'm sure you're going to tell me regardless right."

"A shooting star is an omen that signifies fallen righteousness."

"I thought you didn't believe in omens."

"I don't. But if they really do mean something, how much fallen righteousness do you think is symbolized by that night."

Harry couldn't help but get a sinking feeling in his stomach as he listened to Hemione's words.


	6. Preparations

After a long trip back on the Hogwarts Express and a quick apparition in an alleyway, Harry and Hermione found themselves at the end of the driveway that led to the Burrow. Before they could even knock, the door swung open. Standing in the doorway with open arms obviously ready for some warm family hugs was Mrs. Weasley.

"Welcome back Harry! it's great to see you."

"Good to see you too Mrs. Weasley," Harry replied, greeting his surrogate mother with a giant hug.

"Welcome back Hermione!"

"Thanks Mrs. Weasley."

"Ron, Arthur and Kingsley are waiting for you in the storeroom."

Harry and Hermione quickly headed towards the back of the house while greeting Ginny and George on the way. When they arrived, it appeared as if a lot of thought was put into the journey that they were about to take; on the table sat a large cloth bag that appeared to be full with undisclosed objects and seeing the newly appointed minister of magic at the house was not expected.

"What's this all about?" Harry asked.

"Ron told me about your situation and I thought it was best that Kingsley assisted with obtaining the necessary ingredients to make this operation a success," Mr. Weasley replied.

"Your passports," Ron said as he handed Harry and Hermione a small book and a plastic card.

"Those books are you muggle passports," Mr. Weasley stated, "Upon arriving at your destination, you will take them to U.S. Customs and they will grant you permission to enter the country. The card is you passport to the American Government of Magic; they want to keep a written record of all foreign wizarding citizens entering the country."

Aurthor turned to Kingsley and cued him in to make his speech.

"Voldemort had many followers," he began, "I am not surprised at all that there is someone out there who attempts to bring him back to power yet again. I have seen too much violence in my time as I have lived through two wars now; it is imperative that we stop this dark loyalist from fulfilling his mission, so I took the liberty of presenting you with some tools that may help you along the way,"

Kingsley turned to open the sack on the table. He began pulling out objects and handing them to Hermione, who was already filling her own bag with necessary supplies from the storeroom. The first item he pulled out was a long medieval sword with a ruby set in the hilt, "Godric Griffindore's sword," he said, "I hear you've made good use of it in the past," next he pulled out a small wooden box with three small vials containing a liquid, "Horace Slughorn was kind enough to provide you with some Liquid Luck; use it wisely and only when necessary. His hand disappeared inside the bag again and pulled out a bottle filled with a thick substance that was instantly recognizable as Polyjuice Potion, "Just in case," he said, handing it over. Next he pulled out a piece of glass that acted as a window. "This is a two way mirror that connects you to my office, If you need anything at all, I will always be in contact, and last but not least," he said reaching into the bag...

"A time turner," Hermione said looking at the hourglass pendant on the gold chain.

"For emergencies only!" Kingsley responded quickly, "Never, ever let that out of your sight. If that ends up in the wrong hands, we will have a mess too severe to clean up.

"Is that all?" Harry asked.

"Not quite," Mr. Weasley said as he pulled a card from his pocket, "This debit card is directly linked to the Ministry of Magic's bank account at Gringotts. It automatically converts our money into American money that can be used in all muggle businesses. Because of the severity of this situation, we feel that you will need as much funding as we can provide to assist you. It is not unlimited but it should last you as long as you need."

Everyone in the room then became silent for what seemed like forever as if each person was at a loss for words.

"So, how are we getting to America?" Ron asked, finally breaking the silence.

"I have arranged a flight out of the International airport departing tomorrow," Kingsley answered, "It will depart at seven a.m. tomorrow morning and arrive in Chicago in the late afternoon. But now I think we should have a restful night sleep and prepare ourselves for what lies ahead."


	7. Demonic Cargo

"Dean, could you please tell the damsel in distress back there to shut up?" Sam said, growing tired of the moaning and banging in the back of the car.

Dean pulled the car on to the shoulder on the deserted country road and rolled to a stop. He looked in the rear view mirror to make sure it was safe to exit the car and stepped out after reaching for the demon knife from the back seat. He walked around to the back of the car angrily dropping his fist on the roof a few times until he got to the rear panel. He opened the trunk, exposing Crowley to the bright glare of the mid afternoon sun and stabbed the knife into the floor of the trunk just next to the demon's ear.

"Are you enjoying the ride, Crowley?" he asked. Crowley looked evilly at Dean and nodded his head with an obvious intent at sarcasm. "Are you sure?" Dean asked, "'cause from all the noise we're hearing up here it sure doesn't sound like it." Crowley, again with his sarcasm, attempted what was to be a smothered sigh through the duct tape that covered his face. "I'll tell you what," Dean started, "I'll make a deal with ya. you see this knife?" he asked, pulling the knife back up from the trunk, showing it to Crowley, "every time I have to pull over to shut you up, I will poke a little hole in that meat suit of yours; and every stop, the next hole will be deeper. If that still won't shut you up, I will personally take pleasure in throwing your prick ass into a bath tub full of holy water." When Dean finally got a small look of fear from the demon, he knew his work was done.

"How did it go?" Sam asked

"You know Sammy, I think I'm gonna enjoy having a demon locked in the trunk."

"So what are we going to do when we get back to base?"

"_We_ are not going to do anything. _You _are going to stay and try to find some information on how to get you healed and _I_ am going to see if I can get a lead on Cas; he might know what to do."

"Dean, he is completely off the map, how are you going to find him?"

"Well, the last time Cas went AWOL, he showed up in the middle of some town as a faith healer. I'll start there and see if I can find anything."

When they arrived the headquarters of the Men of Letters, they hauled a stubborn Crowley into small closet with devil's trap drawn on every wall and the door.

"See what you can find," Dean told Sam, "I'm gonna go fill the bath with holy water."


	8. Coming to America

"It's about time we got out of there!" Ron said on his way through the revolving door of the terminal,

"That is officially the last time I use muggle transportation to get anywhere."

"Oh for God's sake Ron, it could have been worse," Hermione responded.

"How so? Spending the last eight hours in a pressurized metal tube where you have to lay across three seats just so you have leg room and then standing in line for an hour just to get a passport stamped is hardly worth this trip!"

"Exactly why weren't we able to use the floo network for this trip anyway?" Harry asked.

"It was Dad's idea but it was a bloody stupid one, I must say."

"Let's not doddle guys," Hermione said, "We have a very job to attend to." She watched as Ron and Harry both were staring in awe at the rich glass architecture in the lobby of the airport terminal. Realizing the urgency of their mission more than they did, she caught their attention with a much more assertive tone, "Harry, Ronald, NOW!" she yelled. The dazed wizard instantly snapped their heads in her direction and began following her silently out the door and into the city street.

"Where are we supposed to go from here anyway?" Ron asked.

"Right there," Harry said, pointing to another building across the street, "That's where the Magical Government of America is located."

"How do you know that?" Hermione inquired.

"That's what Kinglsey says," Harry answered, holding up the two way mirror that allowed him to talk to the Minister of Magic.

"Okay."

Once they made it across the street, they headed towards a staircase that it seemed only they could find in the back of the building and entered a very large basement area. This Government complex was not nearly as large or complex as the Ministry of Magic was and it was not nearly as pretty to look at. The floor was simple concrete and the white plaster in the walls was beginning to peel in some spots. The ceiling looked as if it would cave in at any moment and the only visible support beam in the whole complex was rotted halfway through.

"Wow, they sure don't skimp on the fancy architecture here," Ron said with a hint of sarcasm.


	9. Talking to Crowley

The moon was shining bright through the thick fog that filled the air when Dean finally arrived back to the bunker from his trip. He stepped out of the Impala and pulled the key out of his pocked to enter.

"Sammy?" he yelled, closing the door behind him. The building was completely dark and silent.

"Hey, Dean," Sam said after flicking on the light next to the sofa.

"Did you find out anything?"

"Well, no one has ever pulled this off before. The Men of Letters don't have anything in their books or journals. I tried talking to Crowley but I can't say he cooperated. How about you?"

"I went to every church, cemetery and other holy location within fifty miles of here. There's no Cas, no Metatron or any other angel left out there that we know of."

"What do you mean _that we know of_?" Sam asked. Dean reached into the pocket on the inside of his coat and pulled out a silver weapon and set it on the table between him and Sam. "An angel blade?"

"Correction," Dean began, "An archangel blade," He proceeded to point out the various markings on the dagger that distinguished it from its weaker counterpart. "I found it in the glove compartment."

"So what does that mean, there's an angel out there who's trying to help us?" Sam asked, "It's not Castiel's, unless he nicked it from Raphael before he killed him."

"I think maybe there _was_ an angel trying to help us; we just didn't get the memo it time." Dean began walking towards the staircase that led to the upper level.

"Where are you going, Dean?"

"Gonna go say hi to Crowley. See if I can get him to talk, the bastard's gotta know something."

When Dean finally got up the the second floor, he turned to the doorway that was dimly lit by a slowly dying fluorescent lamp. In a chair next to an old bath tub sat Crowley. He appeared to be slightly dazed and half asleep.

"Hey, Crowley," Dean said loudly to him, "Wake up, sunshine."

The demon did not budge. Even after being shaken slightly, he did not acknowledge Dean's presence.

"Hey!" Dean shouted again, this time throwing a glass of holy water on his face. His face began sizzling and he jumped up into complete consciousness.

"Ouch," he said, "What do you want? I'm trying to sleep."

"Do you know how to heal Sam?"

"Do I look like an angel to you?" Crowley said statistically, "Of course I don't know how to heal Sam."

"You know know what I mean," Dean told him, trying again to get Crowley to talk.

"I don't know. Why don't you go ask your grim reaper friend, he seems to be you go-to fix for brother every other time."

"Fine," Dean said. He filled up a nearby bucket with the holy water from the bath tub and threw it onto Crowley. His eyes lit up bright red as his skin began sizzling again; he was clearly holding back a scream of pain. "We'll be talking again soon," Dean said, "Enjoy the rest of your night. Dick."


	10. End of Normal (Part 1)

When the taxi finally reached Museum Campus after what seemed like hours of driving through the city, the sky was beginning to lighten; dawn was quickly approaching. Hermione reached into her pocket and pulled out some muggle money she had exchanged upon arriving at the airport and paid the driver. Harry got out of the back seat after Ron and the two opened the trunk to retrieve their luggage. Once the cab drove away, Ron began letting out another dose of his muggle slander that had been plaguing his friends since their trip began.

"A whole hour in the back of an old, musty car just to get here and we still have to walk?" He asked angrily, "Can we at least shrink our bags a little bit?"

"Ron, will you just shut up!" Hermione said finally taking a stand, "You have been complaining constantly about everything we have had to do since we left London. Give it a break; please. It's just around the corner."

When they had finally reached the corner of the street, they arrived at the front steps to a vary large, white building with unique Greek style architecture. Harry, Ron and Hermione walked up to one of the large pillars and set their bags down. Ron leaned up against the pillar to relax and began talking incoherent gibberish to himself.

"So where's your friend?" Harry asked Hermione.

"She'll be here soon."

They waited for several minutes, trying to enjoy the scenery of the big city that surrounded them. "Hermione Granger," a voice said from their left. As they looked, they saw a rather thin, blonde girl about their age walking up to them. She stopped just short of a few feet from the top of the large staircase and glared at them.

"Hey Kate," Hermione greeted her, happy to finally see somebody else that she knew. The girl said nothing and continued staring at her and her friends, "This is Kate," she said to Ron and Harry, introducing her to them, "Kate, these are my friends, Harry and Ron," she said pointing them out. Hermione began to feel slightly worried as her old friend just continued to stare at them blankly with a slightly evil look in her eyes. "Kate, are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" her friend responded. "Ten years ago, my best friend told me that her parents were making her go to some far away boarding school. She disappeared for what seemed like forever. Now she's standing in front of me with all knew friends as if I never existed. You never called; you never wrote; you never even came over to my house in the summer to say hi since you started going to that mystery school and now you suddenly need my help. I'm sorry, but why should I give a damn?"

Ron and Harry watched helplessly from their spot against the tall pillar as Hermione attempted to rekindle her lost friendship. "I am incredibly sorry Kate," she started, "Some things happened back then; things that I couldn't talk about. I was afraid of what would happen if I let some things slip."

"That's unfortunate," Kate responded, "Because coincidentally, I have a couple secrets of my own. I'm not sure if those secrets are something I should let slip or not." She was beginning to sound rather cynical and was clearly not happy about what she was hearing.

"If it's any consolation, you don't really want to know where I have been in the last few years, or what I-we have been through. Please Kate, we really need you to help us here." Hermione looked her Kate in the eye, hoping that she would change her mind.

"Piss off," Kate told her. She turned her back and began to walk away.

"Excuse me?" Hermione said, slightly disgusted at her words, "Did you really come all the way out here just to say that to me?"

Hermione turned and gave Harry and Ron a look of despair and started walking back down the stairs to them. In a quick, impulsive attempt to help out, Harry shouted out to Kate, hoping that she would turn around and reconsider providing help. "Really bad things are about to happen soon and if you don't help us at all your world could be in danger too," He shouted. He suddenly looked Hermione with guilt expressed on his face, not realizing what he had said until it was too late.

Kate turned around, acknowledging his statement and started walking back to them. "What do you mean _my world_?" she asked suspiciously.

Hermione's heart started racing and her breathing became quick and heavy; she knew they now had no choice but to reveal their secret to a muggle. "Kate," She said quietly, "I need you to know that once we tell you what we are about to tell you, you are officially as much a part of this as we are, and that it will put you at risk to any of the events that may follow."

"Fine," she said in reply, skeptical about anything she might hear next.

"When I turned eleven years old, when I first told you that I was going to a private school, I received a letter telling me that I had magic in my blood and that I was accepted at a school of witchcraft and wizardry. Being part of the magical world included not being able to tell anybody about it, which is why I couldn't talk to you; I didn't want to risk letting that secret out. Harry and Ron were the first real friends I had there."

"So wizards and witches really exist." Kate confirmed.

"Not just that," Hermione continued, "everything that you ever thought was a fantasy, unicorns and dragons for example, are real; a very powerful spell has been place over the entire world to ensure that normal people like you don't see them."

"So what are these bad things that you mention," Kate asked, curious about the magic world.

"A few years ago, an extremely powerful dark wizard came back to power-"

"By extremely powerful we mean he was practically a god," Harry added.

"Anyway," Hermione continued, "the dark lord, as he was known, attempted to take control of the entire wizarding world and destroy those who were not pure-blood wizards."

"What do you mean by pure-blood," Kate inquired.

"Wizards who have direct family who do not have magic powers; we call them half-bloods. I had no immediate family who were wizards. I was muggle-born, which is our word to describe non-magic people. anyway, the entire wizarding world fought against the dark lord and it was only two years ago that we finally managed to kill him. Unfortunately there is very powerful magic that exists that can bring him back and we have reason to believe that someone plans to do just that if they didn't already." Hermione stopped for a moment before changing the subject. "You seem surprisingly accepting of all of this. I thought for sure you would be freaking out a little."

"Actually, not all of this surprises me," Kate responded

"How so," Ron asked, confused that a muggle would know about magic."

"About a year ago, I experienced a rather traumatic incident that finally made me realize that there are other things out there."

"Like what?" Hermione asked.

"Last year something was attacking the students at the university I was attending. It was a werewolf."

"How do you know?"

"My friend, Michael was bitten. For a while, we couldn't figure out what actually happened to him, but his roommate, Brian, managed to find out and got bit in the process. They fought each other in the dorm room and it got passed on to me as well,"

"You're a werewolf?" Ron said, surprised. Kate nodded back.

"Kate, I know there are people here who investigate what most people would consider abnormal. Do you know anybody like that who might be able to help us?" Hermione asked, "We need to find an secret organization and I think someone like that might know about them,"

"I think I might, actually." Kate responded, "Why don't we head up to my place and I'll see if I can find their number."


	11. End of Normal (Part 2)

"Well, here we are," Kate said to her followers after a several mile hike through the city and up the seven flights of stairs to her apartment. She unlocked the door and invited her guests inside.

"This is a very...uh...cozy place you have," Ron said feeling a little uneasy. The one window in the apartment was boarded up and the wall surrounding it was discolored with an unsightly damp ring of mold that secreted a rather foul smell. The floor creaked and moaned in such a way that it felt uncomfortable to stand in one place for very long. There was also a large spot worn away on the carpet where the ceiling clearly leaked in a good rainstorm. "Looks like this place could use a little renovation," her continued.

"Really Ron?" Hermione said with an angry whisper, "have a little courtesy; it's not like your house doesn't creak a little bit too."

"Well at least in my house the roof doesn't leak."

"I know it's not much but with my condition, it is a little hard to keep a job at times," Kate told her guests, "Make yourselves at home, I'll see if I can find the phone number I mentioned."

Harry sat down on an old lumpy chair that sat beside an old wooden rocker that Ron claimed for himself. Ron turned to him and opened his mouth to start speaking, "Harry, I'm sure this is going to be a stupid question but, what is a phone number?"

"Ron," Harry began, raising his eyebrows, "You really need to get in touch with the muggle world."

"I'm serious. I want to know."

"I think that whole thing is something you're better off asking Hermione about."

"Okay," Ron said rather disappointed by his best friend's reply.

It only took a split second for Dean to jump out of the old recliner when the obnoxious ringing from Sam's phone filled the room. It was only early morning and he had hardly gotten any sleep at all with all of Crowley's groaning and pounding from the upstairs bathroom. It took a couple seconds before he could see straight and focused and he realized Sam was no longer sleeping on the sofa. "Hey, Sam. Get down here and answer your phone!" He yelled up the stairs. No answer. "Sammy?" he tried again. Once the ringing stopped, he got up to search for his brother. On his way to the kitchen, he noticed a poorly handwritten note taped to the front door. _Out getting groceries. Be back soon. _"What the hell condition is he in to be out shopping?" he asked himself. Sam's phone began ringing again. The number was one he did not recognize and he then became suspicious about who would be calling his brothers number that wasn't in either of their contacts lists. He picked the phone up off the table and hit the answer button. "Hello," he answered, "No, he's out. Can I take a message?...yeah, I'm his brother...who is this?...yeah, I remember you...what's the problem?...what? Can you say that again?...yeah, we'll head that way soon. We can be there in a few hours. Oh, just one more thing...How did you get this number?...I see, thank you. Bye."

Just as Dean hung up the phone, the lock on the door began to click and Sam stumbled in with a small bag of groceries. "Hey, Sam," Dean said, "What the hell were you doing out in the morning with out telling me?"

"I left you a note," Sam humbly replied.

"Your dying Sammy. You have better things to be doing than shopping for dinner; especially when you forget your phone."

"I'm here aren't I?"

"Not the point Sam." Dean changed the subject now, informing his brother about his missed call. "You got a call by the way," He said.

"From who? Cas? Kevin?" Sam asked, still interested I the fate of their friends.

"No. The call came from Kate Barstow," Dean replied.

"Kate Barstow? The werewolf girl?"

"Yeah, Surprisingly she's still managing to avoid chewing on human hearts."

"I'm sure she didn't just call to say hi. What's up?" Sam asked.

"A job. It sounds like there's some really weird crap going down in Chicago."

"Like what?"

"Wizards, for starters." Dean watched his brother raise an eyebrow, suggesting that had some suspicion about what he had just heard.

"Like Wizard of Oz kind of wizard or Merlin the great magician?" Sam asked. Dean couldn't tell if he being sarcastic or serious with his question.

"Sounds more like the Merlin kind. And they want our help," he replied, "We're supposed to head down there now to find out what is really going on."

"Are we taking Crowley with us?" Sam asked.

"Yep, I sure as hell ain't leaving him here."

Dean and Sam quickly put some things together in their duffel bags and put them in the back seat of the Impala. Dean headed upstairs again to unchain Crowley from the chair in the middle of the devil's trap on the tile floor. For his own enjoyment, he gave the uncooperative demon a few good, hard slaps to the face after soaking his hand in holy water and then proceeded to drag him out to the driveway where he and Sam stuffed him into the trunk. Sam noticed a small deformity in the white painted devil's trap on the trunk and touched it up with some extra paint from the glove compartment. The brothers got settled in the front of the car and Dean stopped to look at Sam just before he started the car. "Just one more thing," he started, "When did it become okay to put either of our numbers into the yellow pages?"

Sam looked at Deans evil stare for a couple seconds and then looked away, unable to come up with a good excuse.

"Well?" Dean tried again, still unhappy with the misinformation.

"I started to miss the good old days of just hunting the regular stuff," Sam replied, "I thought it would be a good way to get a job every now and then."

"Really?" Dean said rather shocked, "It seems to me that you were the one who said you wanted to give up hunting not too long ago."

"So I changed my mind, big deal."

"Did you ever think that putting our numbers in the phone book is a good way of getting us killed? People track phone numbers Sammy; if a demon or an unfriendly angel or anything else for that matter that wants our heads on a plate finds our number, we're screwed." Dean did not wait for any response from Sam, who just sat in silence anyway, and he started up the engine. As they drove off, Dean started to calm down slightly and after a long several miles of silence, he started talking again.

"So, did you put it under paranormal activity or...uh...the exorcist?"

"Not funny Dean." Sam responded.

"I'm serious. When we start getting calls from people looking for us, I want to know what their going to call us." Sam refused to answer and silence fell before the car again as they continued on their way toward the Windy City.

After a few hours of talking, reminiscing and sharing a cheap lunch of canned macaroni and cheese, the wait for the hunters to arrive at Kate's apartment finally came to an end. A couple of knocks could be heard on the beaten up door along with a few muffled voices and Kate rushed over to let then in. When she opened the door, she was greeted by a large silver archangel blade and a handgun that presumably was loaded with a silver bullet.

"I call you to come down hear and help out with a situation and the first thing you do is whip out a knife and gun?" She said appalled.

"Just a little insurance in case you decided to wolf out on us," Dean replied.

"I told you, I've been clean since the start; relax."

"Don't take it the wrong way," Sam said, putting the gun in his pocket, "hunters' habit."

"Come on in," Kate told them. She then turned back to the kitchen and led them to the wizards who needed their help, "Sam and Dean Winchester," she said, introducing them, "This is my ex-best friend Hermione Granger, and her friends Harry Potter and Ron Weasley." Even after getting back up to speed, she was still emphasizing her distaste for her lost friendship.

"Good to meet you." Dean said to them, he and Sam shaking hands with them in sequence.

"Are you the paranormal hunters?" Hermione asked them.

"I guess you could call us that," Dean responded, "Are you the wizards who supposedly need our help?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron asked.

"Witches, wizards and warlocks all have one thing in common: they've all tried to kill us on at leas one occasion." Dean responded, remembering the various encounters he and Sam had with people who use magic. He then received a very dirty look from Ron who began to assume distrust

"Do you think we're the enemy here?" he yelled suddenly.

"Absolutely not," Dean assured him, "it's just that most guys like you don't come asking for our help; they're usually powerful enough to obtain their desires on their own. And that usually involves trying to kill us in the process."

Hermione butted in to attempt to stop the pending fight before it actually broke out and began regrouping everyone on the situation that threatened their world.

"Alright, let's stop the fighting," she said, "There is an extremely powerful dark wizard that is going to come back to power and if he does, the world is going to feel his power. Not it a good way," She added, "Unless we get what we need to stop this from happening, we will probably all be dead."

"What exactly are you looking for?" Sam asked her.

"An ancient spell book that might help us stop him from coming back. We were told that in might be with the Men of Letters, an organization that was in alliance with our world for a long time."

"Sorry to break it to ya kid, but the Men of Letters were completely wiped out a long time ago." Dean said.

"You mean there's no one left from their organization?" Harry asked, very concerned.

"Please, there must be someone left who knows something," Hermione added.

"Actually, we did recently inherit pretty much their entire arsenal of information by accident, it is entirely possible that we might have this book." Sam told her to her relief. He then noticed Dean giving him a very unhappy look that clearly showed that he did not approve of the information he just gave out.

"Sammy," Dean said, walking up to him, "Can I have a little private word with you quick."

Sam accepted and the two walked over to the corner of the living room, inching slightly to the side in order to avoid the moldy puddle on the floor.

"Are you nuts?" Dean asked his brother, "smart people don't just tell the first wizard they see that they have a complete library of information for them! How do you even know that their trying to stop it? They might just be the ones trying to bring the dude back for all we know."

"Dean, do they look or sound like they want to bring an evil wizard back?" Dean did not answer, "Kate trusts them, why shouldn't we?"

"Because Kate is a werewolf Sammy. I don't even trust her fully."

"Maybe they can help us find Cas or Kevin. Maybe we can make ourselves trust them."

"Fine," Dean gave in, "But if we die 'cause their lying, I'm gonna kill ya."

Sam and Dean walked back over to the wizards and passed on their deal.

"Okay, we'll take you to our little hide out. We'll look for your spell book and then your going to help us out a little bit."

"What exactly do you need help with?" Hermione asked.

"That depends," Dean replied, "Can you guys create thing out of thin air like they do in the movies?"

"Of course," Hermione answered, "Why?"

"We'll talk about it on the way there," Dean said, "If you're in a hurry, we should go now."

Everyone agreed to their terms of service and prepared for their journey back to the Bunker. The wizard gave their goodbyes to Kate and they headed out the door the Impala. Harry approached the back of the car to open the trunk when he dropped his bag next to the wheel after hearing a strange pounding from inside.

"We'll take care of your bags," Dean said to him, "What's in the trunk is better left to your imagination for right now."

Once they all settled into the car, Dean cranked up the AC/DC playing on the radio and began to speed down the busy city streets to get back on the highway to their destination.


	12. Tricky

"So, there are angels and demons running around on earth, you fight them along with various monsters of myth and legend, and this Metatron guy decided to make all angels fall so he could rule heaven on his own?" Hermione asked, making sure she got all the details.

"Yeah, that's pretty much our life in a nutshell." Dean answered.

"And you stopped the apocalypse?" Harry added.

"We try to forget that ever happened," Sam responded. The sound of the banging in the trunk began again after it was silent for most of the trip.

"So who's in the trunk?" Ron asked.

"Crowley," Dean said, "our on and off arch enemy and royal dick from Hell." Ron nodded his head lightly, seemingly satisfied with his answer.

The impala made a quick turn to the right at the end of an old county highway and headed down a dirt road that led to a wooded area. The old telephone lines were casting striped shadows in the mid afternoon sun and the trees specked the road with dark spots against the yellow dirt. The trees slowly thinned out to reveal a large, plain building on the side of the road with a very rough driveway leading up to it. Dean turned the car toward the building and parked at the end of the driveway.

"Alright," Dean said to the wizards, "Go inside and make yourselves comfortable. Sam, let's get take, Crowley to his room."

Sam and Dean pulled the demon out of the trunk of the impala and started pulling him into the bunker that they had been hiding out in for several months. They hauled him into the front door, Harry, Ron and Hermione watching blankly as they worked their way though what they considered to be the living room. just before they reached the stairs, however, Sam collapsed and began having a violent coughing fit.

"Sam!" Dean yelled, Harry rushed up to him in concern.

"Not doing so well are ya, Sammy?" Crowley said as he began chuckling at his misfortune.

"You two, help him over to the couch," Dean told Harry and Ron, "I'll be back in a minute."

Ron and Harry took an arm in their shoulders and rushed Sam to the sofa. Hermione followed, waving her wand occasionally to clean up the small drops of blood that came from his lungs. By the time Dean arrived back on the main floor, the commotion had stopped and Sam was laying motionless on the sofa.

"He's alive but he's not doing very well," Harry said to him.

"Really? You took notice huh!?" Dean responded with angry sarcasm.

"What do we do now?" Harry asked.

"We summon an angel."

"I thought you said all the angels have fallen?" Ron said suspiciously.

"I did...but I'm bettin' that there's still one out there who still has their grace. I need some help from you guys though."

Dean sent the wizards off in various directions to retrieve seemingly random items from the bunker. Hermione began conjuring various, hard-to-find items including various crystals, minerals and a goat horn and began setting up a complex alter of the many objects. For good measure, he also laid out a circle of holy oil around the alter so he could keep his target in one spot. Dean stood in front of the alter and began chanting words in a strange language.

"What is he saying?" Harry asked Hermione, knowing she had the answer to everything.

"I have no idea. I'm just going to be very surprised if it works," she replied, "Muggles can't do magic, remember?"

When Dean finally finished his ramble of incomprehensible words, he threw a lit match into the wooden bowl and stepped back as it burst into a quick, violent flame. He turned around a couple of times to see if the spell worked, but he saw nothing.

"Hello!" he shouted out to no one. "Come on dammit!" He turned around once more to face the makeshift alter and saw a figure standing in front of him.

"Hey Dean," the figure said cheerfully. Dean lit a match quickly and lit the circle of holy oil. The man stared at him for a few seconds as he watched the fire burn and then vanished completely. "Good thinking Dean," he said to him from behind, "but I'm still smarter than you."

"So how is it, this time, that you're still alive?" Dean asked.

"Well, I am-"

"We get it," Dean interrupted, "you ARE the trickster. How did you survive your last encounter and why did Metatron's spell not cast you out too?"

"Well, I decided it would be fun to watch Lucifer fight mini me from the sidelines. I figured it would be better for you if he actually thought I was dead," Gabriel answered, "as for Metatron's spell not working on me, when everyone thinks you're dead, it's a little easier to get away. Actually, the spell he used was only meant for the archangels to use. It was given to us to cast the angels out of Heaven in case shit hit the fan. technically, the spell didn't work for him the way he intended."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"If a true archangel used that spell, all but the archangels would have fallen from grace completely, since Metatron is not that powerful, the angels have only lost their wings and their memories, not their angelic power."

"So it wasn't a meteor shower the other night," Hemione said in understanding, "it was the angels falling from Heaven."

"Correct." Gabriel said, he turned his attention to Dean once more, "Just out of curiosity, since obviously you knew that I was not dead when you set this whole thing up, how did you know?"

"Simple," Dean said, tossing the archangel blade on the floor by Gabriel's feet, "Who else would leave an archangel blade in my car."

"Alright, what do you want from me?"

"Those trials we completed to try to close the gates of Hell are killing Sam. The doctor's say nothing's wrong with him, Crowley says he doesn't know what's wrong with him, and I sure as hell don't know what's wrong with him. I figure you're one of the few guys left we can trust who might know what's going on and how to fix it."

"The trials are cleansing his soul," Gabriel told him, "Unfortunately for Sam, the blood connection he shares with demons thanks to your yellow eyed friend bleeding in his mouth means that the trials cannot completely cleanse him without killing him."

Dean looked at him in disbelief and turned toward his brother while trying to fight back a tear. "Is there any way of stopping it?" he asked desperately.

"There is only one cure I know of," the angel said to him, "but it will be damn near impossible to find it."

"We'll find it, what is it?"

"To eat a fruit from the tree of life," Gabriel said, "It restores all life to pristine perfection by removing all illnesses, addictions, injuries and cleanses the soul without killing you."

"Where is that, the garden of Eden?" Dean asked.

"Yes,"

"So we take Sam to the garden of Eden and have him eat a fruit from that tree and everything will be back to normal right," Dean asked.

"Yes sir," Gabriel responded.

"Alright, I'm in. How do we find it?"

"You don't."

"Excuse me?"

"The exact location of Eden was wiped off the map before angels were ever created; only God knows it's exact location."

"Why hide it? There must be someone else who knows."

"After Adam and Eve ate the apple, God cut off the garden from the rest of the world by creating an impassable waterway around it. He hid it from every other being in all of creation except Death, who lives there guarding it in case anybody ever stumbled across it. Now if you don't mind, I have some stuff to do. Happy searching." Gabriel then vanished, leaving Dean and the wizards to find the garden on their own.

"Now what?" Harry asked.

"We find the location of that garden. Downstairs is the complete Men of Letters library. We search every book we find until we find out where to go."

"Might I also remind you of our own mission. The dark lord is out there somewhere and we need to stop him before it's too late," Hermione said.

"Help us and we help you. That was the deal."

"Fine."


	13. Saving Sam

After several hours of searching through the many books, journals and ancient documents that filled the Men of Letters' library, there seemed to be no hope of ever finding the location of the garden of Eden.

"This is pointless," Dean yelled, "We've searched through everything." With a feeling of despair, Dean sat down at the bottom of the stairs and buried his head in his hands.

"I've searched every spell book I've come across," Hermione said to Harry and Ron, "I haven't found anything that can help us out either."

"Well we need to find something quick," Harry said, "We can't have another war on our hands either."

After their long hours of searching for any information they could find for each of their problems, Sam had finally regained his strength and arrived downstairs to meet them.

"Could the location of Eden be found on the angel tablet?" He asked, looking toward Dean for an answer.

"If it is, are you going to go up and ask Metatron for it?" Dean responded, knowing Metatron would not give up his primary source of power.

"You didn't find anything?" Sam asked, for clarification.

"We found nothing about the location of the garden of Eden, and we found nothing that helps out our friends here either." Sam easily picked up on the fact that Dean used the word 'friends' very loosely. He let out a depressed sigh and began looking through the hundreds of books himself.

Ron and Hermione sat down by a table and began searching through a rather large pile of books that Hermione had been keeping in her bottomless handbag. For nearly a half hour more, the group searched through more books, bibles and now, Sam and moved towards old computer files for information. Each individual kept to their selves, remaining silent until Harry finally found something useful.

"Uh, guys," He started. Everyone in the room turned to look at him.

"Did you find it?" Dean asked eagerly.

"No; but I think I may be on the right track," Harry continued, holding up Hermione's copy of _Beedle the Bard,_ that she had set aside earlier.

"Well, go on," Ron said.

"Your angel friend said the Eden was surrounded by an impassable waterway and guarded by Death, right?" Harry asked Dean and whoever else was listening to Gabriel at the time, "A story in this book takes place in a location that seems to match the description that angel gave us."

"Of course!" Hermione intervened, unaware that Dean and Sam did not know what they were talking about, "The three brothers were greeted by Death after crossing the river."

"I'm sorry, but can somebody please tell us what you're talking about?" Dean interrupted.

"The story of the three brothers," Hermione answered, "it's a legend in our world. According to the story, three brothers came across a river that no one was ever able to pass over. Because the brothers were wizards gifted with magic, they were able to make a bridge to cross the river. Upon doing so, the brothers were greeted by Death as he had felt cheated. He rewarded them with gifts of their choosing which were the resurrection stone, the invisibility cloak and the elder wand, which was supposed to be unbeatable."

"How does this help us?" Sam asked, "It's just a story."

"Because the three brother actually existed; so did the Deathly Hallows, as they were named. The resurrection stone was a real stone from the river that the brothers crossed, Harry has the invisibility cloak, and the elder wand was how Voldemort almost won the war last time." Hermione answered, "If we can find the location where they met Death, we can find the garden of Eden."

"Great, how do we find that?" Ron asked.

"All you have to do is look at their grave sites," a voice said from behind them.

"Decided to come back, Gabe?" Sam asked the angel who manifested in front of them as they turned around.

"I figured you could use the help," Gabriel answered.

"What is looking at their graves going to do?" Harry asked him, "We don't know were to find them anyway."

"You've already found one, or don't you remember your Christmas in creepsville?" Gabriel said in response, recalling the trip Harry and Hermione took to Godric's Hallow several years ago.

"You know about that?" Harry said.

"Of course I know, I was there." Hermione looked over to the angel in disbelief, "Well, somebody had to make sure you didn't get yourselves killed," the angel added.

"So where are the rest and how do they help us?" Dean asked.

"Well, after their little bout with Death, the brothers went their separate ways, and each died in a different location around the world." Hermione said.

"And coincidently, all their graves just happen to face in the direction of the location where they met Death," Gabriel added.

"So now we find all these graves and make note of which way their facing?" Dean said, disappointed with their new task.

"Actually, I took the liberty of doing it for you," Gabriel said, handing Dean a map with three large, red dots drawn on it. "You can thank me after you have survived the trip." With those words, the archangel vanished once more, leaving the group to riddle out the map he had drawn.

The map was a rather large map of Europe with large dots marking the brother's graves in the United Kingdom, Germany and France. There was no indication of how to find locate where they needed to go.

"It's nice he decided to give us some instructions," Ron said, "How are we supposed to riddle this out?"

"Simple," Hermione said, pulling out a pencil and measuring stick from her bottomless handbag, "We draw a circle connecting all three dots," she continued as she drew a circle on the map, "and, if the graves truly face in the right direction, the center of the circle should be where we need to go."

"But that's in the middle of the sea!" Ron said as he personally eyed out the center of the circle on his own.

"By just looking at it, yes," Hermione continued, "But, if the circle is placed just right, the center of the circle should be right here," She finished, marking the map with three lines to find the center of the circle, "right in a remote region in southern England just inland from the coast."

"So now what?" Sam asked, "we charter a plane and fly there?"

"No need," Hermione said. Sam raised his eyebrows in a confused expression, "Being wizards grants us some very useful skills."

"What, like teleporting?" Dean asked.

"Something like that," Harry replied.


	14. Near Death Experience

"Are you crazy Hermione? You of all people know how dangerous, and difficult it is to apparate across continents; let alone a place you've never been to!"

"Ron's right, Hermione, that kind of apparition is really dangerous; and to do it with a muggle—"

"We're muggles, Harry, you and I," Hermione responded quickly, "We are just the same as them. You saw him perform magic to summon that angel to us. Sure, it was a different kind of magic than we're used to, but it's still magic. The only difference between us and them is that we can see things that they can't see and we know some things that they don't know."

"So now you want to go to the garden of Eden with him?" Ron asked viciously, "You can die if you don't do that right; with Sam along, that's more likely. Why?"

"Because, Ron, he is going to die anyway. We might as well take a chance at saving if we can!"

Sam and Dean watched as the three wizards argued about the trip to Eden. They wanted to join in and give them their two cents but they were still not completely familiar with their wizard lingo.

"If it is really that dangerous to get there, we shouldn't make the trip," Sam said to his brother.

"You're dying, Sam. Are you going to tell them not to do this? I sure as hell won't."

After several more minutes of constant arguing, Harry took Hermione aside to find out why she was so worked up.

"What's going on Hermione?" he asked softly, "this is not like you; in fact, this is far from like you. We have bigger things to worry about anyway; there's the spell book and You-Know-Who..."

"I know, harry. This is just something we have to do."

"Why?"

"Do you know what it's like, Harry, to watch your best friend walk out to the Dark Forrest, knowing that he's sacrificing himself to dark magic?"

"Is that what this is about?" Harry asked, raising his voice with the seriousness of the topic, "I had no choice and you know that, so don't use me as a role model and kill yourself for something like this. Use you head, Hermione. Work out a plan, a strategy, like you always do."

"I do have a plan."

"And what is that?" Ron interrupted, "Getting yourself killed."

"No!" Hermione shouted, "Now will you two shut up and listen. Last summer, I started taking lessons with a high member of the Department of Magical Transportation on how to safely apparate across large distances like this, as well as how to apparate to unknown places." Hermione paused for a moment and then continued on with another subject, "I should also tell you, I think we may be able to benefit from this trip as well."

"How so?" Harry asked.

"Well, if that angel was right about Eden, and your interpretation is correct, Death will be there."

"How is that good?" Ron asked, extremely puzzled by the thought of such circumstances.

"If You-Know-Who is really back, he has to have some extremely powerful magic out there somewhere helping him along. The only thing that got us through the last faceoff with him was the Elder Wand. With that in consideration, we will definitely need it again, and I think I know how to get a replacement for it."

"Your going to ask Death for another Elder Wand?" Ron said.

"Have a better idea?" Harry returned.

After their short talk about the purpose of their trip, the wizards regrouped with the Winchesters in order to work out their plan for helping Sam and continuing their mission.

"Do you have this all sorted out now?" Dean asked.

"We have a plan, but we all need to listen close and save your questions for the end, okay?" Hermione waited for everyone to acknowledge and then continued with her speech, "what we are going to do is apparate to the location we marked on the map. I'm going to take Sam there. We're going to go in, get what we need, and get out."

There was a short pause and Dean started to ask for some clarification, "What exactly is apparating?"

"Instant travel," Hermione answered, "It's essentially like teleporting from one place to another."

"I'm going with you," Dean told her.

"No you're not," Hermione responded.

"Excuse me?"

"This kind of travel can be very dangerous, Dean, especially across this big of a distance. Adding you along will only make this harder."

"So what do we do, sit on our asses and wait?"

"Yes!"

Hermione grabbed the map from the bookshelf she had left it on earlier and laid it out on the table in front of her and Sam. She had Sam grab onto her arm and she put her finger on the spot on the map that they needed to go. "By the way," she said, looking at Harry and Ron, "If you ever need to apparate somewhere you've never been, pointing to its location on the map and concentrating on it will take you within a few kilometers of that place," she then turned her attention to Sam and gave him some instructions, "This is probably going be a very rough ride; whatever you do, do not let go of me or we are going to have a very big problem." Sam nodded in response and waited as Hermione took time to concentrated on their location. For several seconds, they stood there motionless, Dean, Harry and Ron standing around them, playing tag with their eyes as they exchanged glances with each other. Suddenly out of nowhere, Hermione and Sam twisted out of shape and disappeared into thin air.

"Holy shit!" Sam exclaimed as he and Hermione rematerialized, "What just happened?"

"We apparated," Hermione answered, "here, sit down and gather yourself for a minute," she added seeing Sam stumble around in a dizzying motion. He was breathing heavily and he could feel his heart trying to race out of his chest.

"Let's not do that again," he declared.

"Probably not an option, are you ready to continue?"

"Yeah, let's do it. How do we find the place though?"

"It's probably over there by the rushing water," Hermione deduced by listening to the sound of a fast moving river in the distance. The two began walking in that direction and started having a very clarifying conversation.

"So who is this wizard that you guys are so afraid of?" Sam asked.

"We call him that Dark Lord or You-Know-Who. We don't use his real name because the last time he was in power, saying his name would summon his followers to you and get you killed. So what's your story? I hear you talk about the angels and demons like their both enemies."

"Well, that's kind of a long story," Sam replied.

"Okay, how about the shortened version."

"The shortened version is that demons are not our friends and neither are angels, except for Castiel, but he fell along with the rest of them and he's been missing."

"That other angel seems to be a good ally."

"That would be putting it loosely, he helped us fight off the devil and send him back to Hell but that's about it. He's been mostly trouble for us."

Sam and Hermione arrived at the river and were slightly concerned about crossing it safely.

"I can see why Gabe called this river 'impassable,'" Sam yelled over the sound of the rushing water, "How do we get across?"

Unsure of any good spell to build a true bridge, Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed it at a nearby log that could be set across the river.

"A magic wand?" Sam said, "Seriously?"

"It's how magic works for us. Don't be so quick to judge." Hermione then returned her focus to the log and attempted to form a makeshift bridge over the rapidly moving water, "_Wingardium Leviosa,_" She yelled and lifted the long off the ground, moving it over to the water. She gently carried it over rocks and other fallen logs, rotating and lifting it so as to avoid hitting the trees that were still standing and she began to slowly ease it into the water. The water began to rush into the newly placed log and started to flow over to top. Sam could see the log slowly being submerged and started running towards the bridge to get across before it moved.

"Sam, wait!" Hermione yelled out to him, stopping him just before the water began washing the log downstream.

"Now what do we do?" Sam yelled over the top of the river, "We can't swim through this!"

Hermione quickly scanned their surroundings looking for something that could help them get across the river. She glanced over by Sam's feet and noticed some rather flat rocks that were sitting in the gravel banks of the river, "Sam, stand on that big rock!" she yelled over to him. Once Sam was firmly on the rock, she used her levitation charm once more to lift the rock up and carry him over to the other side. Once he was safely over to the other side of the river, she called the rock back and repeated the process with herself. Once they were both safely across the river, they turned around to face it again, as they did, they watched the water instantly stop moving and become silent.

"Why didn't you do that before?" Sam asked, surprised by the suddenly motionless water.

"That wasn't me," Hermione answered. She and Sam turned around to see a man standing in front of them.

"Hello Hermione. Hello Sam," the man greeted them.

"Death," Sam said, recognizing him instantly.

"That's Death? Hermione said, confused, "How do you know him?"

"That's a story for another day," Sam replied.

"I know why you're here, Sam," Death said to him in a very calm voice, "but you know I can't let you pass."

"Why not? You've always helped us before,"

"Too many times, clearly, as you now think you can just take advantage of me."

"C'mon man, I'm literally dying here,"

"Good," Death snapped back, "It's about time."

"Just give one more chance, Death, out of the goodness of your heart."

"I have helped you Winchesters enough out of the goodness of my heart, if I had one. I helped you sent that infernal brat back to Hell, I traveled back there to return your soul to you, and I helped you solve your little leviathan fiasco. I'm done, Sam."

"I'm begging you man, just this one last time."

Death stood silent for a moment, considering Sam's request. "Fine," he said at last, "but this will be the last time I ever spare the lives of you or your brother. If either of you finds a way to kill yourselves, again, it will be my pleasure to make sure that you don't ever come back. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir," Sam said and he began marching forward into the trees of Eden to find the Tree of Life.

"No, not you," Death said to Hermione, stopping her as she tried to follow Sam into the garden.

There was a long period of silence as Hermione waited with Death for Sam to return from the forest.

"Unnerving, isn't it?" Death said, finally breaking the silence, "to stand in the presence of death?"

"How would you know?" Hermione replied nervously. Death did not answer. Instead, he stood in silence, completely still. He was so still that Hermione began to notice that the tall, pale man was not even drawing breath. Now, practically trembling by just thinking about the supreme power of the Grim Reaper, she attempted to work up the courage to ask him for a favor of her own. "Sir, I-I was wo-wondering if I, uh, could, um, ask you something," she finally said, trying hard not to show fear.

"If it is about what happens after one dies, I will not answer. If you ask me to bring someone back, I will not oblige," Death responded.

"Actually, sir, we have reason to believe that a certain dark wizard has been brought back..."

"If you mean Voldemort, then yes, I am aware of his return."

With the confirmation of the wizard's return, Hermione felt her stomach drop and her heart begin to race. She got real cold and was ready to throw up, but she continued on with her request, "Given the circumstances, I feel that we would have the best chance against him if we used the Elder Wand. I was just wondering if maybe you could fix it for us?"

"That wand was one of a kind," Death responded, "Last I checked, you snapped it in half and threw it into a gorge. Why would I make a new one for you?"

...

Sam finally found a clearing where two gigantic trees filled a gap in the woods. On one tree, large, luscious leaves of a pure, pearly white color filled the twigs and branches. The bark was very pale and smooth, and the whole tree looked so pure and holy. The other tree was slightly smaller. It's branches were filled with glowing blue leaves and had bark that was rough and dark, but soft. On the tree, a single fruit hung from a low branch and Sam could tell this was what he needed. He reached out to the branch and took hold of the fruit. As he pulled the fruit from the tree and brought it up to his mouth, a familiar figure took form in his peripheral vision.

"Eat the fruit, Sammy. You know you want it. You know you need it," the figure, Lucifer, said to him.

"You are not real," Sam said staring at the man who had tortured him so many times before.

"Oh, Sammy, I am very real," Lucifer said.

"We've finished this once before, you were supposed to have been blocked out of my head completely."

"I know, but come on Sammy, I'm back. I'm really here. In fact, I find myself to be lucky enough to even make it here in time to see you in a state of agony once more."

"How did you get out?" Sam asked, horrified by the fact that the devil might actually be back.

"I have some friends in pretty high places," Lucifer said, "It was always the plan that if I failed the first time, Metatron would lift me back up from that hellhole."

"Metatron brought you back?" Sam asked, puzzled.

"Oh yes, Sammy! and the best part is...that spell he used to cast all the angels out of Heaven, that was all part of the plan to make sure the angels weren't around to screw up my plans."

"What plans are those?" Sam asked furiously.

"You'll see soon enough, Sammy. So go ahead and eat you fruit, you'll need it. Bye Bye." Lucifer finished his little speech and disappeared from sight.

Sam took a bite of the fruit and felt life getting restored into his body. He took another bite from the fruit and another until he had eaten the entire thing. He felt every part of his body become restored as if it was healing everything that had ever hurt him. He felt no pain, he had no cravings for anything and he felt much younger than he had felt before. When the overwhelming feeling had finally stopped, he jogged out of the forest and back to the river bank where Hermione was waiting with Death.

...

"Please, Death, we need this," Hermione pleaded in an attempt to get a new Elder Wand.

"Do not beg me for anything ever," Death replied angrily, "I don't like beggars and, quite frankly, I have no problem with snapping my fingers to shut one up."

Hermione immediately stopped talking as she knew that shutting someone up meant killing them.

"There is a certain artifact of mine out there somewhere and I would really like it back," Death said, "Bring it back to me and I will _consider _making a new wand."

"What do you want?" Hermione asked.

"My resurrection stone," Death replied.

"All it does is bring spirits back for a while, what importance is it to you?"

"First of all, it is mine, and it has infinite value to me. Second, that rock is more powerful than you will ever know, so do not assume that just because one wizard does not have the capacity to bring a person back, body and soul, that another one can't."

"That stone could be anywhere,"

"Then find it, or there's no deal"

"Hermione!" Sam yelled, running out of the woods, "We need to get out of here right now!"

"How do we do that?" Hermione asked, "my magic isn't working here,"

"I will keep the water still for you," Death said to them, "don't come back unless you have something I want,"

Hermione and Sam ran across the now still water way and they apparated back to the bunker.

"You made it!" Harry said cheerfully as he watched Hermione and Sam reappear in the room.

Ron noticed a look of horror on his friend's face as she bent over the table, hold her arms out to support herself, "Hermione, are you okay,"

"He's back!" she said, "You-Know-Who, Death said so."

"Why should we believe Death?" Harry asked.

"Because Death doesn't lie," Dean said, "We've dealt with him several times, he may mislead you but he doesn't lie."

"Lucifer's back too, Dean," Sam said.

"What?" Dean yelled.

"Metatron some how brought him back from the cage, and he's planning something big."

"Like what?"

"He didn't say, but whatever spell Metatron used to cast all the angels out of Heaven was his way of making sure the angels didn't interfere with whatever he's got planned."

"SHIT!" Dean yelled at the top of his lungs.


	15. Late Night Stroll

The bunker was exceptionally quiet and lifeless after Sam and Hermione returned from the garden of Eden. After exchanging thoughts of concern about Lucifer and Voldemort actually being back and in power, the group hit the sack in order to relieve their minds of as much stress as possible. Even then, it was hard to sleep knowing that there dark wizards and fallen angels lurking around somewhere in the world. Finally, when two hours of tossing and turning seemed like a full eight, Harry could not stand to think about their situation anymore and got out of bed to try to clear his mind. He stood up and let his eyes adjust to the darkness before attempting to quietly stroll through the hallway to the kitchen so as to grab some food. On his way there, he noticed that a light was shining through the crack between the floor and the door to the library where they had been spending a great deal of their time earlier that night. He slowly reached out for the doorknob and twisted it open to see Dean sitting at the big table with a book and several glass bottles sitting next to him, several more were scattered on the floor in various places. He appeared to have been drinking rather heavily.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked him, rather concerned about his heavy drinking."

"I can't sleep at all, I'm exhausted, and I'm running out of beer; do I look okay to you?" Dean replied.

"Hermione saved you brother, you know," Harry started, "what she did was very dangerous, but he has been healed."

"Good. Feel free to send her my thanks and I'll cross that off the to-do list later but right now I have about five million other things on my mind!"

"Like what?"

"Like what? Try the devil is walking around on Earth, again, and we don't have a clue on how to stop him. Plus, if your dark wizard is back and kickin', your mysterious spell book is just another thing we have to deal with."

Harry paused for a few second and began to think of the possibility of helping Dean solve the problem with the devil that he seemed so concerned about.

"You said the devil was on Earth once before?" Harry said.

"Yeah, two years ago. That entire year was nothing but stopping apocalyptic event after apocalyptic event."

"How did you stop him?"

"The only way to shove him back down to the cage was by using the rings of the four horsemen. But if Metatron is the one who brought him back, we won't ever get close enough to him to do that. I'm more concerned about what he's planning this time than trying to send him back to the pit anyway."

"I think I might be able to help you figure out his plans," Harry told Dean after sever seconds of deep thought.

"How? Don't you have your own problems to deal with anyway?"

"Yeah, but I've been thinking, you said two years ago is when the devil came to Earth, right?"

"Yep,"

"Well, two years ago, our world, the wizarding world, was in a war against the dark lord. We almost lost," Harry could see that Dean was already losing interest in his story, "but, for some reason, I find it hard to believe that both were around at the same time before, and now they are both back."

"Are you saying that the reappearance of Lucifer and your dark wizard are connected?" Dean asked.

"I don't know how and I don't know why, but yes, I do think they could be connected."

"How do we find out for sure?"

"Well, I know someone who was once a very loyal follower of the dark lord. He has since abandoned the cause but I think he might still know something worth knowing."

"Does he live out in the UK too?"

"Yeah. Unfortunately, I don't think I can apparate us there safely like Hermione could; we either need to wake her or find another way."

"I think I've got a way to make that work," Dean said, reaching over to grab a wooden bowl of what appeared to be random junk and began heading up the staircase, "Let's go," he said to Harry, ushering him to follow.

They walked up the stairs into the hallway that crossed with the entry way of the bunker and over too an old bathroom. Dean unlocked the padlock that kept the door chained shut and turned on the lights above the counter. An illuminated Crowley began moaning as the sudden change of light left him temporarily blind.

"Say hello to Crowley, the self proclaimed 'King of Hell,'" Dean said to Harry once their eyes were adjusted to the light.

"I thought you didn't trust demons," Harry said.

"This one I do," Dean responded, "Hey Crowley, are you ready to get out of those handcuffs for a little bit?"

"What's the catch?" Crowley asked in response.

"No catch, we just need your help."

"And what makes you think I would help you?"

"Demon binding spell," Dean returned, "their surprisingly hard to come by, but I finally found one earlier today. I even got it ready for you," Dean showed Crowley the wooden bowl of random objects and set it down on the counter next to the sink, "All I need is a few drops of your blood."

"Clever work, Dean," Crowley said, "I thought there was not catch."

Crowley watched Dean give him a huge smile and proceed to give him a few words of his own, "You been screwing with us for a very long time, I just thought I would return the favor."

"You know you still need my blood for that spell to work, right?" Crowley said to Dean with a rather serious smirk.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing that you're sitting right in front of us then isn't it, in a nice, comfortable pair of demonic handcuffs and a nice, roomy devils trap."

"Do your research a little better next time; my blood won't work now, it's tainted with Sam."

"I know," Dean replied, still grinning from ear to ear, "It's a good thing I thought about this ahead of time." Crowley, confused with Deans words, cocked his head to one side, much like a dog trying to understand a knew word from a human. "A while back you gave us that little vial of your blood, and I said to myself, 'gee, this looks like it could be useful for more than just ganking some Dick Roman,' so I saved a few drops of it for later," Dean then pulled a small syringe out of his coat pocket and began dropping what was left of Crowley's pure blood into the bowl.

"You sly bastard!" Crowley said angrily, knowing that he now had to follow every command that Dean would give him.

"Let's start by taking us somewhere we need to go," Dean told him.

"Fine," Crowley said, staring down his new master with the most evil look he could make.

"Where to, Harry?" Dean asked cheerfully.

"Malfoy Manor," Harry said, "I'm guessing that's a place you can find."

Crowley gave no response to his words but proceeded to raise his hand and snap his fingers, sending him, along with Dean and Harry, across the globe to a place that was always dark and gloomy.

"That's sure a lot smoother than our way of apparating," Harry said when they reappeared in front of a giant house that was the home to his archenemy from school.

"Nice place you got here," Dean said in awe as he observed the rich, aristocratic details of the mansion's architecture, "Who lives here?"

"The Malfoys," Harry answered, "Draco went to school with us and we very quickly became enemies and rivals. His father was a death eater, one of Vol—I mean, the dark lords most faithful followers."

"I see," Dean responded.

"Obviously, I was never on good terms with the Malfoys and I doubt much has changed in that department, so whatever happens here, just let it happen."

Harry, Dean and Crowley approached the front door of the huge house and Harry reached out to ring the doorbell. Harry took a step back an waited for someone inside to open the door. The door handle began to twist and the large, heavy door began to creak open slowly. Harry leaned over to the side in order to get a better look at who was answering and saw that it was his best enemy, Draco.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" he asked.

"We need to speak to your dad, it's very important," Harry answered.

"It's not important enough to see him," Draco replied and began shutting the door.

"It is important, Malfoy," Harry said, attempting to keep the door open, "it's about You-Know-Who."

Harry watched hopelessly as Draco continued to close the door. The trio waited as Draco seemed to be exchanging some incomprehensible words with his father before the door began to creak open again. This time, Draco stepped all the way out onto the front porch and closed the door behind him.

"Where's your father?" Harry asked him.

"He, doesn't know you're here," Draco answered, "He has said multiple times before that if you ever stepped foot on our property again, he would kill you. I've spent enough time around You-Know-Who that I think I can answer whatever questions you have so let's make this quick...and who are they?" he asked, staring at Dean and Crowley.

"Supporters of our cause," Harry told him, he could not remember the last time he had ever had a civilized conversation with Draco and this face to face talk after not having seen each other in two years just made it feel more awkward.

"I don't have all night. What about You-Know-Who?"

"He's back, for starters," Harry said.

"I'm aware," Draco replied.

"Since your father was a death eater, and you've spent enough time around him, we were just wondering... if You-Know-Who ever said anything about what he was planning if he had won...you know, what his end game was supposed to be."

"Essentially, he wanted pure-blood supremacy."

"We know that, was there anything else?"

"After that, he intended to focus on the muggle world. He wanted to cause complete chaos in the muggle world by breaking the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy."

"Damn!" Harry exclaimed.

"What is that?" Dean asked.

"Basically, it's the one universal spell that conceals nearly every part of the wizarding word from yours," Harry answered, "It's why you can't actually see things like dragons and unicorns the way they are, although some creatures like the Loch Ness Monster sometimes escape that spell. It's also why you don't see wizards flying around on broomsticks everywhere."

Dean slightly nodded his head, realizing now, why every monster they had ever dealt with never looked like they do in books or movies but instead, always appear human for the most part.

"You said you knew that he was back," Harry said, returning his attention to Draco, "Do you have any idea how?"

"Unfortunately, I do," Draco started, "I happened to be present when he made the plan to come back. A while before we all ended up at Hogwarts for the final battle, You-Know-Who made a deal with the devil that if he were to die before his work was finished, the devil would find the resurrection stone as it would be powerful enough to bring him back to life fully. He also said when the time came, that they would help each other reach their goals."

"Son of a bitch," Dean mumbled quietly after finding out that Harry's hypothesis was correct.

"Thank you, Malfoy," Harry said as he began ushering the others to leave and get back to the bunker.

"He doesn't care about you this time, Potter," Draco said to him just before they vanished, "he only wants power this time. You're just another wizard who opposes him"

Harry looked back at him but gave no other response as he, Dean and Crowley teleported back to the Bunker to asses their new information.


	16. Breakfast at the Bunker

"Alright, here you go," Dean said loudly as he barged through the door with a plastic shopping bag full of groceries, "Pick out your favorite breakfast drink and the gas station donut of your choice and lets have a little talk."

Everyone rushed up to the bag and began picking around for their preferred breakfast combination and gathered around the coffee table in the living room while Dean went to fetch Crowley from his comfortable spot of being chained to the toilet seat.

"Okay, is everyone here?" Dean asked, observing his audience, "Good, 'cause we have a few things to talk about."

"Such as...?" Hermione started, anxiously awaiting possible suggestions of how to successfully beat out the figures that once again posed a threat to humanity.

"Such as your dark lord is in fact working with the devil and it seems their plans are going to cause a little bit of a problem for us if we don't figure out how finish em off for good."

"How hard can that be?" Ron asked, "I mean anything can be killed in some way or another."

"It's not about how we kill them," Dean answered, "It's about how we can get close enough to kill them."

"Believe me, Ron, the chances of getting close enough to Lucifer to kill him and surviving the encounter are very slim," Sam said, "by the way, Dean, how did you find out that they were working together?"

"Well, Harry and I took a little trip out of town last night," Dean started, "we had a visit with a kid named Draco Malfoy, apparently he knows a few things. Don't lecture me about going out without telling you, Sammy, I know you're thinking about it."

"What did you find out?" Sam asked.

"There is a spell that is placed on the entire muggle world that hides things that are considered paranormal to you including magical places and creatures," Harry said, "and they intend to break it."

"WHAT!?" Hermione yelled,"

"If that spell breaks, the world will be in utter madness," Ron finished for her.

"What will that do?" Sam asked.

"Picture everybody in the world who thinks that dragons, griffins, sea serpents and about a two dozen other dangerous creatures are fake suddenly being able to see them," Harry said, "The international magical governments spend a great deal of time keeping such creatures out of muggle populations but if muggles capture the creatures' attention, it won't end well."

"So are we talking about dragons, unicorns and the like actually apprearing like they do in movies and TV?" Sam asked.

"Yes we are," Harry said, "Most creatures are relatively harmless and will just attract a great deal of attention but there are still the ones that are known killers that will be in the mix."

"So basically this is gonna be like a fantasy version of Jurrassic Park?" Dean said. Everyone in the room stared at him blankly like they didn't know what he was talking about. "Genetically engineered dinosaurs running loose trying to eat people...? C'mon, everyone's seen that movie!"

"Is there any way to stop this?" Sam asked.

"I've already contacted out magical government," Harry said, "I don't know what good it will do since You-Know-Who infiltrated the ministry last time but it was worth a try."

"So what do we do now?" Ron asked.

"We go hunting," Dean said. The wizards looked at Dean, confused as to what he meant by hunting. Dean instructed Sam to set out some examples of things on the table in the library of things they use while hunting and ushered the wizards down to the room to discuss his plan of action.

"Okay, we need to go over a few things," Dean said, "Starting with hunting the supernatural." Dean showed the wizards to their arsenal and began explaining how their methods worked. "Before we get started, do you guys have any magical methods of dealing with various creatures that we don't?"

"We have a variety of spells and curses that can disable and harm people and magical beings and we also have a killing curse that that is quite effective but it won't work on immortals."

"But Harry, the killing curse is forbidden," Hermione said.

"Honestly, Hermione, I don't think that the ministry of magic is going to care if we use the killing curse if it means stopping You-Know-Who," Harry responded.

"Okay, since we will probably be dealing with a lot of things that can't die, I guess we will be going through everything we can teach you about our methods that will help us deal with this," Dean said.

He looked around at the table full of equipment for a good place to start and picked up a large tin of salt, "I guess we'll start with this..." Dean said.

"That's table salt," Ron said unimpressed.

"Of course; salt can be used as a protective barrier against things like ghosts and demons," Hermione said, expressing an already useful knowledge in fending off the supernatural.

Next, Dean picked up the large rug on the floor where he was standing to reveal a devils trap. "Devils trap," he said, "Most demons are smart enough to look for devils traps before they start wandering around an area so you have to be a little crafty when concealing them. So far, our most recent method that can prove useful is engraving one onto a bullet." Dean then began to draw various sigils on a piece of paper, "These...are sigils that repel angels. Believe me when I say that most angels aren't your friends. In fact, there's only one angel out there that I trust and he fell along with the rest of them."

"What about that Gabriel?" Harry asked.

"He's on our side against Lucifer but he also has a long history of screwing with people's heads, particularly ours, and I wouldn't trust him to make any kind of big rescue if we ever got into a jam." Dean answered. He then looked toward the table again, and picked up the crude bladed weapon he crafted during his time in Purgatory, "Decapitation will works for nearly anything that's not using a vessel," he continued, "And this shit's pretty effective on just about anything if you can get close enough to use it," he finished as he held up a bottle of black liquid.

"Is that leviathan blood?" Sam asked

"Sure is, Sammy."

"How did you get it?"

"Bobby was nice enough to collect some while he was interrogating one of those bastards in his basement. He thought it might come in handy sometime." Dean looked around at the others and finished his little crash course of fending off unwanted creatures, "So...any questions?"

"Yeah," Harry said, "Where do we start?" Sam and Dean looked at each other and then turned to face the wizards. Not even they knew a good place to start.


	17. Voldemort's Secret Mission

"Well, well. It's about time we meet again, my lord."

"At last, Lucifer. Welcome to my new, humble place of residence."

"It could really use a good cleaning. Who did you have to kill to get it?"

"I'm afraid one poor muggle lost his life trying to protect what little he had left. But now, we can put our plans to work, my friend."

"But lord Voldemort, my dear friend, what of your other followers?" Lucifer asked, curious about the fate of the dark lord's once faithful death eaters.

"As I understand, many of my most faithful followers had fallen during the last battle. I have now fallen from power twice, I fear that it will take much longer before they will put their faith in me again."

Lucifer took some time to walk around Voldemort's run down safe house, admiring his collection dark and powerful artifacts that he had displayed throughout. His attention, however, was set on a photo of four rings.

"Where did you find this picture," he asked.

"I need not share all my methods with you, Lucifer."

"These rings belong to the four horsemen."

"I want them, Lucifer, I believe they would make a fine addition to my collection."

"What use are the horsemen to you?"

"Not the horsemen you fool, the rings!"

Lucifer looked at the man, at first, confused, then he began to understand what the dark lord was intending.

"Those rings have been missing since I was cast back into the cage, I have no idea where they are. I have to ask, my lord, are they necessary? Are our plans alone not enough?"

"I have no shortage of enemies, Lucifer," Voldemort told him, "I'm sure you don't either. I want to make sure we have what you might call 'insurance', for when they finally find us." Voldemort now changed the subject and began asking about where the rings could be found, "Do you know how to find the rings, my friend?"

"From what I was told, those rings were entrusted with an angel named Castiel. He knows, but since he, along with all the others, were cast out of Heaven, he may be difficult to work with."

"We should find him anyway."


	18. Horsemen and Hellhounds

"I say we find the resurrection stone, take it to Death, and get a wand that can beat those guys."

"Except that your forgetting, Harry, one of those guys has that stone and it will be suicide to try to get to them to retrieve it. I say we find Metatron and interrogate him so we can be prepared for what they throw at us."

"He's an angel, Sam, and he lied right to our faces. I would trust Crowley before I would believe a single word that came out of that bastard's mouth."

"You would trust Crowley before an angel?" Sam asked, "What's wrong with you, Dean?"

"Hey, he may have screwed us on multiple occasions, but has he ever actually lied to us? Or not done something that he said he was going to do? Think about it, Sam, enemy or ally, he's the only one who has ever given us a reason not to kill him every time we see him."

"I'm flattered, Dean," Crowley said happily with an evil grin."

"Shut up," Sam said.

"How about you all shut up and go after the rings of the horsemen," Gabriel said as he popped into the room out of thin air.

"Why?" Dean asked, "They'll put Lucifer back into the cage but we can't get close enough to do that. And I'm not letting anybody here volunteer to jump into Hell to do that!"

"This has nothing to do with that Dean," Gabriel assured him, "I popped in to eavesdrop on a little conversation between Lucy and Voldemort; the dark lord plans to use the rings as weapons of his own."

"How could he do that?" Dean asked, "The horsemen have all been missing since we hacked off their fingers."

"You don't need to have the horsemen around to feel their affects, Dean," Gabriel stated, "But you already know that don't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean anybody could have been Death for a day, just like anybody could be War or Pestilence or Famine."

"What's he talking about, Dean?" Sam asked.

"The horsemen got their powers from the rings, remember?"

"So what."

"So anybody can be a horsemen," Dean replied.

"Bingo!" Gabriel responded happily, "And I'm rather surprised at how quickly your dark lord figured that out so if I were you, I would think about finding them before he does."

"That's great," Ron said, adding to the conversation, "How do we find them?"

"Yeah, what did you do with those, Dean?" Sam asked.

"Well...when we got back to Bobby's after you jumped into the cage, I gave them to Cas to hide where he thought no one would find them."

"So now what?" Sam asked, "We go find Cas and find out where he hid the rings?"

"I guess so."

"If I might also add..." Gabriel started, "Since you guys seem so concerned about getting the resurrection stone from Lucy, I have some knowledge that might help you out."

"Go on," Harry said.

"Conveniently for you, I happen to know my bro well enough to know what his worst fear is in all the universe..."

"And that is what!?" Sam shouted, getting irritated with Gabriel's unnecessary suspense.

"Hellhounds."

"Excuse me-" Dean responded, "He is literally the high lord of all evil and the one thing he is afraid of is a damned hellhound?"

"Pretty much," Gabriel said, "Prince of evil or not, he's still an angel and hellhounds don't serve angels, so go find yourself a couple of hellhounds, get them trained to obey you and send them after the son of a bitch." Once Gabriel finished his message, he vanished from the room and left the group to solve their conflicts on their own.

"Great, finding Cas is going to be hard enough but how are we going to get a hellhound that doesn't kill us before we can train it," Dean said.

"I think the better question is _how_ do we train it?" Sam answered.

The brothers looked over to Crowley, expecting him to suggest something like him going to Hell to one and train it for them.

"Don't look at me," he said, "I'm the King of the Crossroads, they'll all obey me, I don't have to train them."

Silence befell the whole room as no one had any idea's of how to go about their various missions. Sam and Dean both took to the books so as to find out how to locate a fallen angel and training a hellhound. Harry and Hermione stood in a corner, quietly talking about subjects that no one else was paying attention too and Ron paced around, occasionally stopping to admire the mysterious artifacts and artwork that laced the room.

"I think we should split up," Hermione said suddenly. Dean turned around and raised an eyebrow, signaling her to elaborate on her idea. "We seem to have two equally important missions to carry out and I think we can do it all at once," she continued, "You guys can go find your angel and start searching for those rings, we know somebody that might be able to help us train a hellhound."

"Fine," Dean said, "But take Sam with you; we've dealt with hellhounds before and he has killed one. That skill may be useful to you should things get ugly."

"Then I'll go with you," Harry said, speaking to Dean directly.

"You don't have to do that, kid, I can handle myself," Dean replied.

"If Voldemort is after those rings then he will stop at nothing to get them. Chances are he has some followers that will be trying to retrieve them."

"I can take care of them, I've been doing this kinda stuff for a long time."

"Swords and guns won't help you much with the kind of magic their using. I have plenty of experience dealing with the dark arts. As you put it, that skill could be useful to you."

"Alright, fine...you can come along, just make sure you follow my lead and stay out of trouble."

"Sounds to me like you spend most of your life getting into trouble."

Everyone agreed that their missions would take several days to complete and each team got several things together that would assist them. Dean began giving Harry a crash course on how to use gun, just in case it became necessary and Sam went rummaging through a box of junk, looking for the glasses he and his brother had burned in order to see a hellhound. Hermione then led him and Ron across the room to the map in order to perform her fancy method of apparition and Dean took Harry and Crowley out to the Impala to set out on the journey to find Castiel.


	19. Memories

"Uh, Dean?" Harry started, just before Dean put the Impala into gear.

"What?"

"How exactly are we going to get any information from your friend Cas if you don't even know where to find him?"

"Funny you should ask that, Harry," Dean replied as he turned toward him, "See, Crowley here, has a knack for finding people. I figure that he might be able to help us out."

"Why do you say that?" Crowley asked.

"Seriously?! You can find him any other time, you can find us whenever you want, you can find Kevin at the blink of an eye. Why should I believe now, that you can't find him?"

"Believe me, Dean," Crowley yelled, "If I had the ability to find him, I would, but I can't."

"That's bullshit and you know it," Dean yelled back, "What the hell?"

"Castiel has fallen from heaven completely, Dean, by means of a spell devised by God himself. He has no grace, no essence, no soul, no wings or halo; that pretty much means that he is just an empty body. There is nothing left for me to identify him by."

"Great, so now the only thing we can rely on is luck." Dean said with despair.

"What about Gabriel?" Harry said, "He's an angel, couldn't he find Cas?"

"If what Crowley says is true, that an angel won't be able to find him either. All we got luck and a little bit of hope that we might just find him accidentally or he finds us somehow."

"That might just work," Harry said.

"Excuse me?" Dean responded.

"Luck," Harry explained, "That might be all we need in order to find Cas!"

"Trust me kid, luck has never been on my side...ever."

"Here...drink this," Harry said, pulling a small vial of liquid out of his coat pocket.

"What is it?" Dean asked, tinkering around with the small bottle, trying to make out what it could be.

"Liquid Luck, it's a potion that can help us out, we brought some along in case we needed it and it looks like it has come down to one of those times."

"Seriously?" Dean said, continuing to tinker with the vial, "This just looks like beer."

"It will work, just drink it."

Dean took the cork out of the bottle and slowly brought it up to his lips, "The things I do for this world," he said to himself before pouring the contents into his mouth.

Harry and Crowley both watched as Dean sat quiet and motionless in the driver's seat of the car.

"How long is this going to last?" Crowley asked, appearing slightly concerned about Dean's stillness.

"It can take several minutes for the potion to kick in...depending on how calm or stressed the person is." Harry answered.

"WOW!" Dean shouted suddenly, "What the hell is in this stuff?" Dean shouted gleefully.

"Actually, I didn't make it; I don't know. Why?"

"'cause I haven't felt this good since I drank that whole bottle of tequila last Christmas."

"Good to know," Crowley noted.

"What do ya say we take a little drive," Dean continued as he put the car in gear and began speeding down the road.

"Wait, where are we going?" Harry asked.

"Nowhere special," Dean replied, "We'll find out when we get there." Harry and Crowley looked at each other with slight fear in their eyes and Harry began bracing himself for the ride to come; even Crowley, the seemingly invincible King of the Crossroads, started tightening his seat belt for the unpredictable ride that Dean had started.

…...

After about an hour of nonstop driving through densely wooded land with wide open patches of yellowed cornfields, Harry began to notice that the road signs and the small trees and shrubs were beginning to pass by faster and faster. "Uh, Dean?" Harry said, hoping that Dean was still aware of what was going on around him, "Dean, I think it might be a good idea for the sake of our safety that you maybe slow the car down just a little bit."

"Why would we need to do that?" Dean asked, "Look at this wide open road, no traffic, no cops, this is every car enthusiast's dream."

"Since when are you a car enthusiast?" Crowley asked.

"Hey, just because I spend more time trying to send your ass back to Hell than I do waxing my car and going to car shows does not mean that I am not a car enthusiast." Dean argued.

"I really think that this is a good time to start following the speed limit," Harry said to him as he began to take notice of a man walking down the shoulder of the road. Dean showed no sign that he noticed the man and he continued at his alarming pace.

"I think you should listen to him, Dean," Crowley said, also noticing the man on the side of the road, who now appeared to be swerving to the center of the lane.

"Stop the car!" Harry yelled one final time before they all felt a thud under the car. Dean finally came to his senses and pulled over to the side of the road and began trying to figure out what happened.

"What was that?" he asked, still high on the liquid luck.

"That was Castiel," Crowley said, noting the tan trench coat that the pedestrian was wearing, "Who you ran over with a car because you're hopped up on weird shit and don't pay attention to the road."

Dean and Harry got out of the car, leaving Crowley to have a complete conversation with himself as they hurried over to check on Castiel.

"Hey, Cas," Dean started, "You alright pal?"

"For now," The angel replied, "For what do I owe the pleasure of being run over with a car?"

"That's kind of a long story but god am I happy to see you."

"I'm flattered," Castiel replied, "and who are you?" he said looking toward Harry.

"I'm Harry Potter, sir, I—"

"The boy who lived, yes I know who you are now."

"You'd be more surprised at what they don't know." Dean said to Harry's look of astonishment.

"Can we get on with it? I bored," Crowley said suddenly as he popped up behind them.

"We need your help, Cas," Dean started.

"I'm not sure what help I can be; or any other angel for that matter. We need to find Metatron..."

"Metatron isn't a problem right now!" Dean yelled, promptly shutting him up.

"What?" Cas asked, unsure of what he was hearing.

"Metatron's little spell was just a scheme to get all the angels out of the way so that he could bring Lucifer back."

"And he formed an alliance with the darkest wizard in history in order to put the world into chaos," Harry added.

"I still don't understand what I can do,"

"After we sent Lucifer back to the cage, I gave you three of the horsemen's rings and I told you to hide them in places that would keep them safe and hidden forever. We just need to know where they are."

"I don't remember where they are," Castiel said.

Dean looked straight into Castiel's eyes in disbelief with a gaze more sinister than he had ever looked before, "Would you like to repeat that...for the hard of hearing perhaps," Dean said with the calmest angry tone he could find.

"I—don't—remember—where—they—are," Castiel said very slowly.

"Those rings are some of the most powerful objects we have ever come across in our time and you just forgot?!" Dean yelled, obviously angered by Castiel's response.

"Dean, I—"

"Once again, our existence on this planet might be in jeopardy and you don't remember where you put the very things that might be able to help us..."

"Dean!" Castiel tried again to get his attention.

"You know, it almost seems like every time something major like this pops up, you're either nowhere to be found or you..."

"SHUT UP!" Harry shouted. Dean suddenly found himself physically unable to speak and turned around to notice Harry pointing his wand at him using magic to keep him quiet, "Listen to what Cas has to say, and maybe we can get this sorted out before the world comes to an end."

"Alright, I'm listening," Dean said as Harry lowered his wand.

"I never truly _forgot_ about where I hid the rings. I always had a watch on them even after I hid them but when Naomi started infiltrating my mind I began to block them out in case she took interest in them."

"So is there any way of retrieving the memories of your hiding places?" Dean asked.

"Retrieving blocked memories is a difficult process and loosing my grace won't make it any easier," Castiel informed them.

"Then maybe we should just leave it be," Dean suggested.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Naomi was basically the mentalist of Heaven; if she couldn't access the memories about those rings with her little puppet show than they are as good as gone."

"That's not true," Harry started, "Things may not work as easily with angels but if Cas is only human now than any skilled wizard could hack into his mind and find out whatever they want to know;Voldemort is no exception."

"Well if that's the case, since you're the skilled wizard here, why don't you have at it?"

"I know a lot about magic, Dean, but that is one skill I was never able to master."

"Why don't you call you friend Gabe down to see what's up with his head?" Crowley suggested.

"Gabriel is alive?" Castiel asked, "How?"

"Well, I am the trickster," Gabriel said as he once again appeared out of thin air.

"You really need to come up with a new catchphrase," Dean said, "The whole trickster thing is getting a bit old."

"I see you found Castiel. Hi Castiel!" he said, happily waving at the fallen angel.

"Alright, can you just find out where he hid the rings so we can get with it?" Dean said to him.

"And what makes you think I can do that?" Gabriel asked him.

"Don't even start that, dick. Since the day we first met you, you've been getting into people's heads and screwing with them. If Naomi was able to hack into Cas's noggin find out whatever shee wanted to know, my guess is that you can do that with a little more efficiency." Dean said, getting slightly irate about the trickster's mind games.

"Okay, fine," he responded. He took his hand and placed it on Castiel's forehead, a glowing blue field of energy surrounded Cas as he proceeded. "Interesting," He said, speaking to Dean, Harry and Crowley as he fiddled around in Castiel's mind.

"What's interesting?" Harry asked.

"Cas never blocked out the memories of the rings..."

"Go on," Dean urged.

"Someone else has been tapping his brain too...looking for the rings and then jumbling the memories so he doesn't remember."

"It's Voldemort!" Harry said loudly.

"We don't know that, it could have been someone else looking for the rings," Dean said.

"Even if it is, would they be a friend to us?" Harry asked.

"Good point," Dean responded, "Where is the nearest one?" He asked, shifting his attention back to Gabriel.

"The nearest one is located in...you poor sons-a-bitches,"

"Where is it, Gabe?!" Dean asked, worried about what to expect.

"The alpha vampire's nest up in Montana."

"Cas!" Dean shouted, "What the hell were you thinking?"

"You told me, 'hide them where nobody would look for them,'" Cas responded, "So I said to myself, _why would anybody look in the alpha vampire's nest_,"

"Alright, let's get moving," Dean said to the others as he began heading back to the impala.

"What about me?" Cas said.

"Alright, come on..." he told him, "This is going to be a long ass drive," He said quietly to Harry.

Dean started up the engine as everyone else piled into the car and prepared to travel up to the alpha vampire's nest. "Here," he said, tossing the atlas at Harry, "do me a favor an navigate."


End file.
